Mbayá people

This article is missing information about the language(s) that have been used by the Mbayá people. Please expand the article to include this information. Further details may exist on the talk page.(August 2013)

The Mbayá or Mbyá are a tribe formerly ranging on both sides of the Paraguay River, on the north and northwestern Paraguay frontier, and in the adjacent portion of the province of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. They have also been called Caduveo and Guaycuru, a name used generally of all the mounted Indians of Gran Chaco. The Kadiwéu people are the surviving branch of the Mbayá people.[1]

Contents

The Mbayá placed their heaven in the moon; and it was to the moon that their great heroes and sages went for a time after physical death, until they again returned to earth.

Among the Guaycurus of Paraguay, when a death had taken place, the chief used to change the name of every member of the tribe; and from that moment everybody remembered his new name just as if he had born it all his life.[2]